Like Private School is a Bad Thing?

From WBIR.

This is what happens when customers are not satisfied with a product…they choose a different supplier.  Unfortunately, Knox County residents will still be forced to pay the provider for a defective product they aren’t even using.

 As stated by rocketsquirrel on rocketsquirrel on KnoxViews:

Perhaps the School Board and the Administration need to look in the mirror and explain why it is losing so many students to private schools and home schooling. Perhaps it has to do with service and quality.

Knoxville’s Hot Topic–Rezoning

I’m still baffled by this uproar and outcry.

I wonder how many of the parents who are ranting and raving about the rezoning (the most common complaint is that their kids are going to be separated from their friends) would ever bother to complain to the school board about the fact that their children are graduating from these institutions with sub-standard skills in reading, writing, and math.

Sorry folks.  When you are willing to turn over your right (responsibility) to decide on how/when/what your children learn to the gov’ment, it is ridiculous to expect that you should be able to choose “where” they are sent to be indoctrinated.

It is a sad situation when what should be a wake up call for people to question the overall failure of the public education system is seen only as a possible inconvenience to the social lives of some teeny boppers.  After all, Farragut people could never learn to be friends with Karns people, right?  “They’re diff’rent from us!!!”

It’s nice to see that Knox County hasn’t compromised its priorities.  Football, social life, commute time, …, readin’, ritin’, ‘rithmatic.

We are getting exactly what we paid for.

No worries though. In a few months this will blow over, and we’ll once again be united as a community in our hatred of “Flarda”. Then we’ll debate the real issues that need to be addressed, like who should be the offensive coordinator and starting tailback

Tennessee Trash

I was looking for some other posts about eyesores in Knoxville and  and found  the Tennessee Trash Blog.  Byron has posted this commercial on the entire site.  It is a remake of the “Tennessee Trash” commercial that ran when I was a kid in the 70s.

The funniest thing about the orginal is how I was affected by it.  I was only 4 or 5 years old, and didn’t really get the message of the PSA, but I really loved the commercial.  I remember getting on my big wheel and loading myself down with garbage.  Then I’d ride up and down the driveway throwing trash all over the place and singing the “Tennessee Trash” theme song.

It’s cool they have Ed Bruce singing this though.  Check out this PSA!

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Knoxville Eyesores

I actually got up yesterday to check the KNS online to see their article on Knoxville Eyesores.  I have to say that I’m a little disappointed, but I guess you get what you pay for.  It seems like they were addressing issues that occur everywhere else in Generica–urban sprawl, litter, strip malls, abanadoned warehouses, etc.

While all of these are definitely eyesores, they aren’t specific to Knoxville.  I decided I’d come up with my own incomplete list of eyesores that are specific to K-Town.  Of course, these are my personal opinions. Continue reading “Knoxville Eyesores”

Knox County School Rezoning

This one will stir the pot. There is an uproar going on right now over the rezoning of schools in Knox County to accomodate the new Hardin Valley High School. 3,400 students from Farragut, West, Bearden, Karns, Gibbs, Austin-East, Central, Carter, Fulton, Halls, and Powell are going to be affected.

Let me get this straight…

You had no problem paying for failing public schools before you had children attending them. You will have no problem continuing to pay for these failing schools long after your child has graduated. You have no problem allowing the state/county to decide when your children will go to a failing school. You have no problem allowing the state to decide on the failing curriculum. You have no problem allowing the state to lump your child (an individual) into this failing curriculum that is geared towards the masses. You have no problem with the state using funds (tax money) to support athletic programs instead of actual education. You have no problem with teachers’ unions and tenure which potentially allow incompetent and lazy teachers to continue “educating” your children. You have no problem with teachers “teaching to the test” to achieve high scores on state mandated standardized tests for the purpose of getting a raise instead of teaching your child to reason and think for themselves.

But you do have a problem with the state deciding which of these failing schools your child must attend?

Isn’t lack of choice and control an expected part of socialism? Was the fact that public schools, social security, etc are socialist institutions conveniently left out of the failing public education most of us received?

Sounds to me like we are getting precisely what we deserve for turning so much control over to the state in the first place.

**UPDATE**

I stand corrected.  There are very important angles of this story I haven’t considered.  Luckily, the News Sentinel is on the job.

Concensus versus Truth–Global Warming, Babe Ruth, and Rickey Henderson

The other day, a friend sent me an article from the KNS  about recent temperatures in East Tennessee, presumably trying to convince me that global warming is real and that the temperatures and phenomena in this area for the past 20 years prove it.  All of this stemmed from a conversation we had a few days before about global warming, whether or not humans are causing it, and who (individuals or governments) should do something about it.  Disclaimer:  I feel it necessary to state at this point that this is not a post on global warming.

The guy who sent this article is one of the smatest people I know–easily in the top five amongst my friends, although that may not mean much :), when it comes to raw intellectual power.  He is well educated in the sciences, with an engineering degree from a university who’s program is respected nationally.  I think it is safe to assume that the scientific method is still taught and practiced there and was part of his training.

My surprise isn’t that he believes in global warming.  I am more intrigued that he is willing to argue the causes, which he believes to be humans, based on scientific concensus while completely dismissing facts proven by the scientific method.  He doesn’t dismiss all of the facts mind you, just the ones that don’t support his opinion.

Okay…no more global warming.  Let’s shift gears and talk about baseball and how these topics are related. Continue reading “Concensus versus Truth–Global Warming, Babe Ruth, and Rickey Henderson”

Free Market at Work in the Blogosphere

There is quite a soap opera going on at Just Another Pretty Farce regarding Mrs. Coble’s issues with JL Kirk & Associates.

Here’s a quick synopsis:

  • Mr. and Mrs. Coble felt ripped off by an employment agency, and she blogged about it.
  • JL Kirk & Associates got mad about that, and one of their employees posted some comments on to her post on Mrs. Coble’s site (that was stupid). These comments were rather nasty, especially coming from a company trying to defend itself publicly.
  • Mrs. C. has now received a letter threatening a lawsuit if she does not remove her post(s) about JL Kirk & Associates as well as all associated comments. I suspect this has little to do with their desire to eliminate her original post, and more to do with the venemous comment one of their own employees left there.
  • Countless people will now read the account of what happened, most of whom probably would not have read the account had she not been sent a threatening letter and had it picked up by the blogosphere.
  • Many more people will view JL Kirk & Associates as scam artist jerks than ever would have before. Whether they are scam artists and/or jerks is beside the point. They’ve gone a long way through their comments on Mrs. C.’s blog and by sending a letter to give that impression.

Their own actions will hurt them significantly more than Mrs. Coble’s ever could have. You have to love the free market.

Here are some highlights of the comments left by a JL Kirk & Associates employee in her original post:

And by the way, in Mrs. Cobles’ [sic] case, we would recommend (free of charge) to further her writing “career” she learn to spell “wizardry” and polish her grammar and punctuation skills.

Well, couldn’t we all use a little help there now and then? But free of charge? That’s going above and beyond helpful!

…Mr. Coble has had difficulty with sustained upward mobility.

Is the writer trying to stoke some sort of class warfare fire?

That comment is simply stupid.

This could be broadly applied to most comments on most blogs, but usually isn’t what one says when trying to win over an audience. I seriously doubt you’ll hear that in a presidential debate, although it wouldn’t be untrue.

Mrs. Coble’s spiteful meanness precluded her from asking me about it.

Mean and spiteful? I like Mrs. Coble!

Do a Google search on Katherine Coble! She is an angry, opinionated basher of many things

I don’t need to do a Google search. This statement sold me. From this day forward, I vow to be a reader of Katherine Coble’s blog and to never do business with JL Kirk & Associates out of fear that they will send certified junk mail to my house and an unprecedented amount of traffic to my blog.

On second thought…

Poker Police Strike Again

Reason tells us about raids in Georgia, North Carolina, and some especially dangerous card sharks in Dallas.

I don’t get to play as much poker as I would like, but luckily, I’ve never been involved in a home game that was broken up by a S.W.A.T. team.  I’d like to believe that this is mainly due to the fact that our state and local law enforcement realize it would be a stupid waste of time.

However, I fear that home poker games will be next on their list, as soon as they can rid us of the social scurge that is cock fighting.

More Important Legislation in Tennessee

This one will require mandatory HIV testing of PIMPs (Prostitution Industry Management Professionals).

This has taken things too far.  It’s about time someone stand up and push for deregulation of PIMPing.  It has gotten to the point that PIMPs are so busy filling out gov’ment paperwork and making sure they are abiding by all of the codes that they hardly have time time to concentrate on their core business–smackin’ ‘ho’s and foldin’ bank.

Free market enthusiasts unite!  If the state continues to create more and  more bureaucracy for sex industry management professionals Continue reading “More Important Legislation in Tennessee”

Apologies to the Thompsons

Looks like I inadvertantly angered a couple of Fred’s relatives who read Bob Krumm. Sorry about that…didn’t mean to issue fuedin’ words.

If you are a fan of my biting humor (I did it mostly for you, Shizzle Van Dizzle) and sarcasm you may find it worth a read. If you are not, that means it has probably been directed at you in the last few days and you are still pouting about it. When you get over the fact that I hurt your feelings and realize that everything I say is mostly joking with a little bit of truth, go back and read it.

Seriously, Bob maintains a really informative site with frequent updates, good regional information, and some great original thought. Because his site is ad-free (unlike mine), you know he’s doing it just because he loves it. I read it every day. Check him out.